What is it about figure skating that makes some of us want these athletes to take acting lessons?

Michael Jordan never took acting lessons. Usain Bolt to my knowledge has not taken acting lessons nor has Gabby Douglas.

Certain athletes have a degree of charisma that is not taught to them in acting school. It is real and that is why fans like it.

When I want to see fine acting I can watch Robert Dinero or Meryl Streep.

Maybe it's me but I don' t equate Charlie White with Al Pacino. One is an athlete and the other is an actor.

Do we need skaters taking acting lessons under the new scoring system? I thought it was all about sport now

In this case, I think you're comparing apples and chalk: sporting events like track or basketball do not involve *interpretation* as a key component and figure skating does. If it didn't, why bother skating to music at all? Just go out there and skate a circular or straight-line step sequence or curve lift and may the best technician win.

I'm not suggesting that Charlie needs to immerse himself in Stanislavsky, but I think it would help. One thing you can say for Moir--he has an innate acting ability in performance. I've seen flashes of it with some of Charlie's performances and an acting class can help bring that out (I say this as someone who took an acting class in college because I thought it would be a piece of cake--silly silly me! It was one of the hardest--and most rewarding--classes I took, even if I never had any acting aspirations).

I love both of these teams - but why do I sense a majority of posters at GS might give D/W an slight edge in skating skills and V/M a bigger edge in presentation?

Head to head V/M have the edge over D/W.

I have no idea who is better - but think V/M have won more and not because they are better or faster skaters.

Sport or pageant- which is really more important in Ice Dancing?

Maybe Charlie does need acting lessons

Ah yes, two other points.

1. Plushenko could definitely use an acting lesson or two. Plus someone to tape his arms to his side. There are times I have thought he was going to take off with all that flapping.

2. This will probably get me into more trouble, but I think both V/M and D/W are equally good, but V/M will always win out in a close competition (provided that both skate equally cleanly), because figure skating privileges the balletic style over any other, the same way that drama will almost always win over comedy at the Oscars. There are historical reasons for that, but perhaps that is getting too far afield...

In this case, I think you're comparing apples and chalk: sporting events like track or basketball do not involve *interpretation* as a key component and figure skating does. If it didn't, why bother skating to music at all? Just go out there and skate a circular or straight-line step sequence or curve lift and may the best technician win.

I'm not suggesting that Charlie needs to immerse himself in Stanislavsky, but I think it would help. One thing you can say for Moir--he has an innate acting ability in performance. I've seen flashes of it with some of Charlie's performances and an acting class can help bring that out (I say this as someone who took an acting class in college because I thought it would be a piece of cake--silly silly me! It was one of the hardest--and most rewarding--classes I took, even if I never had any acting aspirations).

Thanks for that good reply.

I basically agree with you and skating will never be like most "real sports" until it gets rid of the music and costumes.

ETA: I agree with your second post too - but are you so sure figure skating always favors a balletic style? And should it?

What did we see at the Japan Open? Was Mao's balletic style favored over Ashley's more athletic style?

I don't think it *always* favors the balletic style, but alas it usually does. Just listen to comments on performance and you'll hear things like "line" and "extension" and "toe point" come up again and again. Now why can't ice dancing include modern dance, for instance, where toe point is simply not relevant? What I AM saying is that, given two equally technically clean performances, the balletic style will score better than a more athletic style. I find this a bit disappointing myself, but then, like you, I like that ice dancing has been going in a more athletic direction (probably the best result of the North Americanization of ice dance). There is only so much Eurotraumadrama I can take!

This is what I don't get. Why is a balletic style considered less athletic? Just because a movement may not be "explosive" does not mean that's it is less athletic - it takes just as much strength to be able to hold and CONTROL a position. Ask any Cirque de Soleil performer - if a balletic style of expressiing a movement is any less athletic? Professional athletes - both female and male - including NFL linebackers have started to implement either yoga or stability exercises to their training regimens in order to become better overall athletes...and not just brusque force...

And that's where versatility comes in...don't get me wrong ice dance is heading in the right direction but I don't want it to become a pairs discipline either....

ETA: Olympia - I agree with you that both D/W and V/M are great teams and both need to be appreciated. I can only speak for myself but I cringe at the thought of both of these teams retiring after 2014...

In this case, I think you're comparing apples and chalk: sporting events like track or basketball do not involve *interpretation* as a key component and figure skating does. If it didn't, why bother skating to music at all? Just go out there and skate a circular or straight-line step sequence or curve lift and may the best technician win.

I'm not suggesting that Charlie needs to immerse himself in Stanislavsky, but I think it would help. One thing you can say for Moir--he has an innate acting ability in performance. I've seen flashes of it with some of Charlie's performances and an acting class can help bring that out (I say this as someone who took an acting class in college because I thought it would be a piece of cake--silly silly me! It was one of the hardest--and most rewarding--classes I took, even if I never had any acting aspirations).

Agreed. Also, I don't think anyone was saying that Charlie as an ice dancer needs acting classes more than, say, a pairs skater or a singles skater. It was just suggested that Charlie would be more effective getting into a character if he had more understanding of a process.

In this regard, skating splits off from other sports. The best skaters can do something that is often described in several ways: they can tell a story, they can bring viewers into the experience, they can convey a character, they can sell a song. All these are aspects of the same power that the best skaters have. I think Daisuke has it already, and Michelle did, and Yagudin. Yagudin is especially interesting in terms of this discussion because he didn't project emotion in an overly exaggerated way. In fact, he was able to convey both narrative and character very smoothly and naturalistically. This was the reason I always preferred him to Plushenko when both were active. Acting isn't just dramatizing, or Philippe Candeloro or Pasha Gritshchuk would be at the top of the list. Acting is being convincing. It's selling the audience the Brooklyn Bridge. In some skaters it seems to be innate, but surely other skaters can learn it.

As for V/M vs. D/W, this is one more of those conundrums that I can never completely solve. Maybe I'm just greedy, but I want both of them at their best, all the time. (Sometimes I'm tempted to think that we should just always give them co-gold medals and leave it at that. Shhh! Don't tell.)